What is Leadership vs. Management by Seth Godin

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 11:28:12 +0000

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- What it means to make a difference – The world-renowned marketing and leadership author Seth Godin talks about the difference between leadership and management, the confusion surrounding them, and why the world needs more leaders.

Key Points:
• Management works well in terms of increasing economic efficiency and productivity. But, in the face of rapid change, the world needs leadership to get through this stage of unprecedented transformation.
• You should strive for excellence. Producing something truly great is the only way to build competitive advantage because sophisticated robots, artificial intelligence, and low-paid labor will handle the trivial job of assuring quality.
• You should focus on “soft skills” which are actually “real skills”. Those are the characteristics that differentiate a potential employee from a robot.
• Effective leadership can help companies navigate difficulties and failures, and eventually find successful processes to get forward.

Questions to consider:
• How can you become more of a leader than a manager?
• How can you and your organization strive for excellence instead of just quality?
• Are you focusing on real skills?
• How can you make better processes in order to fail more efficiently?

You can also find a written summary of the keynote at https://www.nbforum.com/event-summaries/